Merry Christmas Eve, friends! I hope you’ve enjoyed my daily posts as much as I have enjoyed baking and sharing them. My final advent treat is yet another shortbread cookie recipe, but one can never have too many if you ask me. These were my husband’s favorite this season. He loves all things toffee, and even though these cookies don’t have an ounce of toffee in them, the toasted bits of coconut may trick you into believing they do.
Just 6-8 minutes in a 350 degree oven will give you perfectly golden coconut. Be sure to keep an eye on it as it bakes, especially if your oven runs hot. It can burn easily.
I cut the dough into fingers because that seemed like the best coffee-dipping shape. You could also cut it with cookie cutters. The dough will spread slightly out of shape, but not too much.
I kept half of the cookies plain, and the other half I drizzled with dark chocolate and coarse grey sea salt.
These are simple, but the toasted coconut really gives these cookies unique flavor. I feel these will be in regular rotation in the coming year – and wow -2018 is just around the corner!
Thank you for joining me this season! Love and love and love to everyone this Christmas and in the New Year!
Toasted Coconut Shortbread
Yields 4 dozen
This recipe was adapted from Go Bold With Butter
I leave half of the cookies plain and drizzle the other half with dark chocolate and sprinkle on tiny pinches of coarse sea salt. Do as you wish!
Dough
2 cups (180g) sweetened flake coconut
1 lb. (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups (560g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Dark chocolate drizzle
4 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with foil and scatter the coconut onto the pan. Bake for 6 minutes, watching the coconut carefully so it does not burn. Use tongs or a large spoon to toss the coconut together. Bake another 2 minutes and promptly remove from the oven. Let the coconut cool on the baking sheet.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until just combined. Add the vanilla and mix again.
In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Add the flour mixture and the toasted coconut to the creamed butter mixture. Mix on low speed until thick dough forms. Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and pat into a disc. Cut in two. Using a rolling pin, roll each dough half to 1/4-inch thickness between sheets of parchment and transfer the dough inside the paper to the refrigerator. Chill for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cover two or more baking sheets with parchment paper.
When the dough is firm, remove it from the refrigerator and remove the top sheets of parchment. Cut dough into 4×2-inch fingers using a large knife. Transfer the cut-outs to the prepared sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges begin to turn golden and the cookies are fragrant. These cookies will spread just a little bit, this is normal.
Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
For the drizzle, heat the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl at 100% power at 30 second intervals until the chocolate can be stirred smooth. Transfer the chocolate to a piping bag or a zip-top bag with the corner snipped. Drizzle dark chocolate over the cookies and let stand for 1 minute. Add tiny pinches of coarse salt on top of the cookies. Let stand until set, about 30 minutes at room temperature.
Keep cookies in an air-tight container at room temperature.
